Profile: Edward Mujica looked to be in the Marlins closer mix for 2012. Then the Marlins signed Heath Bell. Edward will now likely be used in the seventh and eighth innings again. He has been transforming himself from an extreme fly ball pitcher (55% in 2006 to 34% in 2011) to an extreme ground-ball pitcher (26% in 2006 to 48% in 2011) because of a split-finger fastball he has used more and more often. Over the last three years, his strikeout rate has been 8.0 and his walk rate was at 1.5 for a strikeout-to-walk ratio of 5.41. Only five pitchers (minimum 150 innings) have had a better K/BB over that time frame. Heath Bell only had a 3.0 K/BB rate over that same time frame. Much of Mujica's value is that he doesn't walk many batters (1.5 walks per nine, career). In 2011, five of the 14 batters he walked were intentional. Mujica has quite a bit of value going into 2012, especially in leagues that count holds. The chances of him moving into the closer role are slim because Heath Bell has spent a total of zero days on the disabled list in his career. Mujica's value is maximized in deep leagues where he can be counted on to added to some rate stats. (Jeff Zimmerman)

The Quick Opinion: Mujicas value dropped when Heath Bell was signed as the Marlins closer. He is still useful for his rate stats in deeper leagues.

Profile: Mujica is not a high strikeout pitcher like some others relief pitchers in the league -- he sports a career 7.3 strikeouts per nine (6.5 K/9 in 2012). Instead, the 29-year-old righty allows few walks (0.7 walks per nine in 2012) and home runs (1.0 in 2012). The key to him getting players out is his split-finger fastball. He has used the pitch to raise his ground-ball rate each season since 2006 and help lower his batting average on balls in play almost 100 points. At the end of the 2012 season, he was the seventh inning man for the Cardinals. He is an almost must-draft in deeper leagues because of the strikeout-to-walk ratio and the possibility of becoming a closer if Jason Motte goes down. (Jeff Zimmerman)

The Quick Opinion: Edward Mujica continues to be one of the top setup men in the league.

Profile: With Jason Motte missing all of the 2013 season, Mujica managed to rack up 37 saves after he got a shot to fill the role in mid-April. He tanked in September and ceded the role to the Cardinals' closer of the future, Trevor Rosenthal. Mujica is now in Boston with his clone, Koji Uehara, and it's hard to see him taking the role from the incumbent. With a sub-par strikeout rate for a late-inning reliever, his fantasy value is entirely dependent on being a closer. Could he take the gig from Uehara somehow? The factors that tend to predict closers that are in Mujica's favor are an extremely low walk rate, an above average ground ball rate and the fact that he is right-handed. But the factors against him are a well below average strikeout rate and the fact that experience closing actually doesn't predict future closing opportunities all that well. Right now, he's good for ratios, but not necessarily rates and holds -- the Boston pen is crowded behind Uehara, too. (Brett Talley)

The Quick Opinion: After filling Jason Motte's shoes admirably, Mujica signed a deal to join Boston's crowded pen. His skill set doesn't look like it's demonstrably different than the incumbent closer there, so don't be too dependent on Mujica to fill up the saves column in your roto league.

Profile: The long-standing belief with relief pitchers is that they are akin to fresh fruit -- they're only good for so long, and some are good for far less time than others. And that may be true. But some pitchers are a little more consistent than others. For seven of the past eight years, Edward Mujica has posted a FIP- in the narrow band between 93 and 105, and in the eighth year he was a bit better, at 82. In short, Mujica has been remarkably consistent. Now, consistent is not necessarily a synonym for good. After all, these are scores consistent with a league average reliever, and that is what Mujica has been. Actually, you could say he has been less than that. In his nine-year career, he has racked up just 2.05 WPA. He has, however, racked up a positive WPA in each of the last four seasons. It would appear as though he has figured some things out. Unfortunately, his new path to effectiveness is unlikely to help your fantasy team. He strikes out batters at a clip that is well below average -- of the 67 relievers who have tossed at least 200 innings since 2011, Mujica's 18.7% strikeout rate ranks just 55th. His strikeout minus walk rate is a more encouraging 33rd, but the bottom line is that his WHIP won't be exemplary enough for it to be an asset on your team. Looking at the magical save, we see that over the past two seasons, Edward Mujica has racked up 45 saves. So he is clearly capable of holding down the role. But one of those seasons was not spent with his current employer, the Boston Red Sox, and with Koji Uehara back for another go-round in Boston, Mujica's chances will likely be limited. He may see chances if Uehara goes down for any length of time, but even his assignment to the role last year was curious -- he only ended up racking up three holds and wasn't used like a potential closer. That output may increase now that Andrew Miller and Burke Badenhop are gone, but you probably can't count on him to contribute much in either the saves or holds department. (Paul Swydan)

The Quick Opinion: Edward Mujica is a reliably serviceable relief pitcher, but given that he doesn't strike out a lot of batters, and is not often trusted with high-leverage roles, he is probably a pitcher you should avoid on draft day.

Profile: Edward Mujica's 2015 certainly could have gone slightly better. Finishing off the second (and final year) of a free agent deal signed with Boston, the righty struggled massively in April, with a 4.61 ERA and a 5.70 FIP. He was traded to Oakland in early May where his numbers improved slightly, but in only a marginal sense. In aggregate, the splitter-loving Mujica's 5.12 FIP was the worst mark of his career (unless you could 13 innings with Cleveland in 2007). Always somewhat prone to the gopher ball, Mujica's home run per nine rate was an absurd 1.9 in 2015, which might be a target for some luck-based improvement if it wasn't for the fact that his career average is a "still high" 1.3. Couple that with the fact that his strikeout rate has dropped every single year since 2010 (cratering to 15% last season), and there are not a lot of rosy signs for Mujica's value, either as an major league pitcher or a fantasy one. While his velocity is now down a few mph from his career peak, he's never been overpowering, so he could still provide some above-replacement value -- he also has the coveted proven closer(TM) trademark, so it wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility for him to get a save opportunity or two. However, given that he'll be on a minor league deal in Philly, he shouldn't be high on your priority list. Unless you are drafting slam-dunk, locked-in, ninth inning guys, you want to draft peripherals when talking relievers on draft day. Mujica doesn't fit in either of those categories. (Colin Zarzycki)

The Quick Opinion: Mujica had a rough 2015 where he saw poor rate stats, a lot of dingers, and continued declines in areas such as velocity and punchout rate. Now another year older and forced to settle for a minor league deal, it is hard to even stretch an argument which makes him draftable in any fantasy league. Leave him for the waiver wire.

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